what ideas do you have for removing lice my 4 year got it and the RID isn't working with the nits

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Angel (Jane) - posted on 08/12/2009

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work in the school system and the only real thing to do is sit and pick pick pick ....the children will not like this try to keep them watching tv or with a Nin.DS in hand lol do this daily tell you find no more and do as Darlend below says

My daughter had lice last summer. I did the following and they were all gone, I never saw them again:

*Get a nit comb with METAL teeth

*Cover the child's hair with MAYONNAISE (not miracle whip) the olive oil kind that they have now would probably be even better, but I used regular mayo. Lice hate olive oil.

*Wrap the child's head (the hair part, obviously) in plastic wrap, tightly. Leave this on the child for 2-4 HOURS (the longer the better). This will suffocate the actual bugs and clog up the pores that the nits use to "breath" which will kill them.

*Remove plastic wrap, Wash out the mayo. Mix a small amount of tea tree oil into about a 1/4 cup of olive oil. Just enough to make it really smell like tea tree oil. Rub this into the child's hair and scalp. (Lice hate tea tree oil) Use nit comb to carefully comb through hair tiny section by section. This should take a long time. You will probably find dead bugs. If you don't find any then the RID probably killed them. This treatment will do a better job of killing the nits which were still alive. Get out as many nits as you can. Leave tea tree oil mixture on hair overnight.

*Meanwhile, remove all bedding from child's bed and wash with HOT water. Place anything that the child might have rubbed against her head or slept with in a sealed plastic bag for 1 week (like stuffed animals). Wash all hair brushes and combs thoroughly and rub a little tea tree oil into them. Check other children and have someone check you to make sure you don't have it too. Many times kids get reinfected by another family member who doesn't know they're infected.

*The next day after soaking in the tea tree oil mixture overnight, do the nit comb again. You will find more nits. More than likely these nits are dead but their little "pods" will continue to mature from being invisible to being visible for a few more days but the actual nit inside is dead. Unless you see more BUGS, the treatment worked. To be safe or if the infestation was really heavy, do the mayo-tea tree oil-olive oil routine again about 3 days after the first time. After that, just keep doing the nit comb every day until you don't see any more nits. If you normally oil your child's hair, add a few drops of tea tree oil to her hair oil. It's good for her scalp and hair and will prevent re-infestation.

My kids are black also and the only child who got lice was the only one who does not oil her hair. My other girls use a hair oil that has olive oil in it. Even though they shared their hair brushes and even slept together a few times during the time when I'm sure my one daughter had the lice, the other 2 sisters didn't get it. If you use a hair oil with olive oil and/or add some tea tree oil to her usual hair oil, it should prevent further lice.

Let me know if this works for you. I've suggested it to a couple of other people who had great success with it. I got these ideas from putting together information I found on several natural health websites and from the NIH (national institute of health) website.

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Amanda - posted on 08/16/2009

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From first hand experience, I use vinager. I mix it 3 cups vinager to 1 cup water in a spray bottle for better control. Then use a nit comb and wash the hair as you usually would. Check the childs head and if there is a few nits left some rubbing alchol and patience should remove the rest

Hey Vanessa, my daughter had lice, nits, all we did was use 100% tree tea oil, you can only get this product from a company called Melaleuca, the reason I am telling you not to go to a Health store like GNC is because their oil is not 100% tree tea oil. The only company in the world with all the rights to it is Melaleuca. I guarentee you will love this product. Plus it is safe, and won't damage their scalp. Also another product that works is good old Listerene, they hate it. Also works on Dogs fleas, both products, Please call me if you would like to know more about it. My # 419-653-4832 I hope this will help you out. Friends of God Michelle

I am sure it has been mentioned, but tea tree oil, sometimes called Melaleuca oil is a natural safe sure cure all. You can apply to the head and also dillute it and put in a spray bottle for the pillows and add some to the wash. I hope this helps! God Bless

Thank you so much everyone all your suggestions worked well and yes it is a long and painful process lol... but i'm glad it's over i know i may have to be dealing with it in the future but i pray i'm lucky and it wont happen ever again and i wqas lucky enough to have a one year old who is nearly bald so my daughter would play with her when the whole world was afraid to touch her... poor girl,.,.. well thanks again and God Bless

There is a new product out in salons called Fairy Tales. It is an organic and pesticide free way to get rid of them. They also have a product line called rosemary repel that actually repels lice and other bugs from the hair. It is FABULOUS!!!! You should be able to google Fairy tales and see if any salons in your area carry it!!! GOOD LUCK

If you have feather pillows, they lice can live and thrive in these. Either pitch them or put them in the dryer after every treatment. The mayo and plastic shower cap repeated for 3-4 nights worked for our kids. Do keep in mind the mayo is greasy and will leave your pillow and sheets that way if it happens to leak out of the cap. I put a towel over the pillow to help absorb any that leaked out.

definitely be aggressive, wash head with hartz dog dip.. i know sounds harsh but they have realized that the reason rid ans nix dont work is because the lice are immune to it. use the dip it is inexpensive, and works well. lay the child on the counter so you can have close contact and see better. put it on its like water comb it thru & leave set for about 5 min. rinse real good. comb out hair with metal tooth comb. wash all linens in hot water but if there is somthing u cant wash put in the dryer for at lest 45 - 60 min. it is the heat that kills. vaccum everything. soak brushes and hair things in hot water with the dip in it. dont bother usin the sprays they are expensive and dont really work as they have the same products as the shampoos (that dont work). keep a close eye on her head lookin for nits.

I'm afraid there is no "quick" answer. You have to sit in a well lit area and pick them off. I used to be a school social worker and one of the biggest problems in elementary schools was lice. If you have live ones, you can get real mayo or olive oil and slather it all over the head and hair. Put a shower cap on and leave it in the hair overnight. This will smother the live ones and will be less toxic on the child than Rid or Quell. Washing it out can be a problem, but a few extra shampoos are a small price to pay. Again, however, the nits have to be manually removed. Also, wash all bedding in the warmest water you can, place all stuffed animals and pillows in plastic garbage bags and close them up for at least two weeks. The lice and nits will die off in that time frame. Thoroughly vacuum overstuffed furniture and floors. Don't forget to also vacuum car seats and head rests. Where a lot of people run in to repeat problems is not getting the nits all out; those little combs help, but rarely get all of them. Those that survive the RID and Quell are "super" lice and are less likely to die off the next time around. I wish I had an easy answer and I totally empathize with you. Good luck to you and your 4 year old. One more thing, please, if at all possible, don't do like many parents I met did...don't shave your child's head and don't use the old Kerosene remedy. One damages the child's self-esteem and the other is very dangerous!!!

You have to be out-and-out CRAZY about the death of these little buggers! My oldest daughter got them 2 times, I sprayed everything! I picked, by hand, each and every nit out. I used the cream rinse type of medicine. I put all stuffed animals up for over 2 weeks. The Dryer also helps, put things in the dryer for over 10 minutes, very hot, it kills them too. Also, don't forget anywhere your child has been in the last couple of weeks! One child I heard about, got rid of them, but got them back when they went to church, they layed in the floor and played during the sermon, and got them again! Carseats, seats, chairs, carpet, even in seams of leather/vinyl seats, they hide in there too! Good Luck!

Tammy, another reason could be that the daughter who did not oil had hair that could "cement" the nit to the hair shaft. That's why lice like clean hair so much more than dirty hair.

The best comb you can get is the LiceMeister. It is metal teeth with plastic handle. And while it is more upfront, it does help. You cannot rely on it alone, but it does get a lot more out than the plastic combs and you can boil and reuse.

Like mentioned above, though, the best (and honestly, only) way to do it is to continuously check head for the next few weeks and remove as many nits as you see. You should do it daily because when nits are new they are not visible to naked eye.

One place that was not mentioned was any and all cars, and or car seats that your daughter may have used in the last week needs to be sprayed just like you did every thing that could be treated in the home. You may want to suggest to your child care provider, if you child goes to child care to put every child's things that have fabric on them, in a big trash bag. When I worked at a Child Care Center almost 10 years ago we had to do this and we say a big drop in the infestations.

The most important thing to realize is that just because your child caught lice it does not mean you are not keeping your child, home or car clean. When our oldest daughter was in first grade she brought them home to us. The child's mother that had given them to the class was embarrassed because she thought people would think they were dirty so she did not keep her child home from school or tell the school until the teacher found it on her during a class check. I hope this helped.

Time and lots of patience! My daughter had it last summer and I went into a frenzy...you must vacuum everything from carpets to mattresses (then throw the bag away). Throw away hair brush and hair accessories. Wash everything like clothes, sheets, bed linens, pillowcases in hot water. Vacuum interior of car. Use the products like RID (I thought Nix was better) and check hair every single day. I pulled nits out every single day! They will hatch and you will find new ones and you will get depressed and discouraged. But keep it up; it took about a month total, but you will win.

Oh my, I had three little girls and if one got lice...all got lice...Darlene has some good advice for you, but let me add just a few more...the air tight bags work best when they are put away in a warm place, also place any dolls with hair in them ...I let them set for a month. Also Rid has a spray, use it on the carpet, and furniture that has cloth on them and mattresses. Take pillows and put them in the dryer on high for at least 20 minutes. And yes, the combs do not work well enough to get the nits off, you really do have to pull them down the strand of hair. It is a tough job, and if the child/children that she got them from are not treated she will get them again.

My sister had that problem...Believe it or not she used real mayo to get the nits out. Worked like a charm...She also had to bleach everything that could be bleached. And most of the other things that couldn't be salvaged, she tossed. But since then. No problems...Good Luck...Hope this helps a little:)

Hi, Vanessa, I used to work for the Health Department and most of the time you had to pull the nits off each strand of hair with your fingernails. Slow process! But even the combs you can buy for that purpose don't work as well as the fingers. That's what we always told our clients. Make sure you treat everybody in the household, bleach everything that can be bleached, just wash everything that can't, vacuum really good, spray all the furniture, and put stuffed animals in an air tight bag for a couple of weeks. Hope this helps.